Balfour Beatty Engineering Services (BBES) has partnered with Action for Children (AFC) for the second year running.
The AFC 'Moving On' project provides a support package for young Renfrewshire men leaving the Polmont young offenders institution. The project includes employability skills, independent living skills, help with benefits and housing and cognitive programmes to address offending behaviour.

This year, 10 local young people visited the Glasgow office for a two-day training course. On day one, they completed Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IoSH) Working Safely accredited safety qualification led by Pat Rafferty, BBES senior safety adviser.

Day two focused on manual handling, asbestos, confined spaces stepladder use and environmental awareness. John Murray, environmental adviser, gave the young men an overview of site environmental issues in addition to conducting a practical exercise on environmental emergency drills. This exercise also gave them an opportunity to work on their team building skills.

The two days were part of an overall eight-week construction skills programme which culminated in a five-day community project at Rowanlea Children's Unit in Johnstone where the group rebuilt a wooden bridge, refurbished existing pathways, laid slabs, built a brick barbeque and erected fencing. Pat Rafferty visited the youngsters at the community project to see how the safety training given was being put into practice and also discussed with them their risk assessments.

Carl Bilton, BBES' resourcing manager, said: 'It's been great that BBES has been able to support this local project for the second successive year and give these young people both work skills and a fully accredited IoSH qualification. They seemed to get a lot out of the training and it was great to see their enthusiasm.'

Joe Bryers, a project worker from AFC, recently spoke about the success of the programme: 'The current re-conviction rate within HMYOI Polmont is around 90 per cent. Re-conviction rates within the 'Moving On' Renfrewshire project currently stand at 23 per cent, meaning 77 per cent of young people who engage with the 'Moving On' scheme by completing the programme do not return to custody.'

The four who completed the programme last year all went on to secure employment or training courses. This year seven of the 10young men completed the programme and BBES is looking at apprenticeship opportunities with them in the autumn.